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Public demo help
This page explains how to use the public demo site of RERO ILS, which runs the last released version of RERO ILS.
This help isn't very detailed, and is only in English for now. But feel free to reach us on gitter or on twitter to ask anything!
By default, the search retrieves documents - i.e. books or other document types, and their items - that match the typed keywords. Note that the default boolean operator is AND.
The search looks for strings that exist in the index of documents. This index contains the document data, which is composed of bibliographic records and item records. The item data includes barcode, call number, location, item type, and also information related to circulation, such as the status (on loan, on shelf, missing) and the start date, end date and patron identifier if the item is on loan. Obviously, this will have to be modified in the future for privacy reasons.
You can have a look at how these data are structured by exporting the JSON of a document. Type a query (even an empty one) into the search field and click on a result which has some items. At the bottom of the page, you will find a link to export the complete data of the documents displayed in a JSON file (web embedded). Observing this data, you should be able to type advanced requests in the search input, using the Lucene syntax.
Try this query: _exists_:abstracts AND publishers.place:(genève OR lausanne) AND item_status:on_shelf
It retrieves documents that have an abstract, whose publisher place is either Geneva or Lausanne, and that have at least one item available.
You can create yourself an account, using the Sign Up button in the My account menu. All you need is a valid email and a password. You have to confirm your email. For now, the user account has no other right than the ability to log in.
The librarian, through the Resources > Users menu, can also create a new user.
There are several patron accounts already registered. You can log in through any of them using their email address and the 123456 password. You can use available accounts such as:
Notifications messages are sent to these emails, but for obvious reasons, the access to these email accounts is restricted to the development team.
These patrons already have borrowed and requested items. You can see them in the profile once you're connected with one of the patrons IDs.
Patrons can make requests on items, except for missing or already requested items by the same patron.
Four professional accounts exist and are ready for use. Each one is attachad to a library. You can log in through any of them using their email address and the 123456 password:
The librarians can manage, i.e. create, edit and delete:
- documents (and items),
- libraries and locations (this is the beginning of the consortium structure of reroils),
- users.
The librarian can also perform circulation actions, such as check in and check out, extension and request validation.
All these features are available through the admin sidebar menu at the left of the screen displayed for logged-in professionals.
The Admin sidebar menu is available to the librarian account. When the librarian selects an option in this menu, the page displays the complete result list of the corresponding index (an empty query). Then, the search input can be used to make any query in that same index, be it documents, patrons, libraries and locations.
The entry circulation at the top of the sidebar displays the circulation interface.
RERO ILS is populated with bibliographic records imported from the RERO catalog. The document types are the following:
- article
- book
- ebook
- journal
- score
- sound
- video
In addition to the ability of searching for documents and items, this view enables the librarian to create a new document. The create button is on the top of the documents result list. At this stage, the document editor is very, very, very simple.
At the right of the ISBN field, is a blue import button. If a EAN-13 number that exists in the BNF catalog, clicking on the import button will populate the editor with data.
Once the form is completed, the submit button will add the new document to the index.
In order to edit or delete documents, the detailed view of the document has to be displayed. Just click on the document title from the result list.
On the document detailed view, an add button opens the item editor. Items should be linked to a location, for now through the persistent identifier of the location. This PID can be found through the library view, in the JSON export.
The ebooks are a special document type. They are imported and synchronized regularly from external sources (Commercial platforms). Thus, it's not possible to edit or delete these records and no item are attached to them.
A link is provided to enable the end user to borrow the ebook through the intended web service.
This view displays the list of libraries existing in the demo instance. To simplify, all of them are attached to a unique organisation. Clicking on a given library lists all of the locations inside it.
This is a minimal consortium structure implemented yet.
Through this view, a librarian can create, edit, delete libraries and locations. The elements of this structure are linked together, so there are checks performed when the librarian decides to delete a record. Be it a library, a location, a document, an item or a patron, existing links or transactions will block the deletion.
This view lists the existing users. The librarian can create, edit and delete users the same way as documents and libraries.
When creating a new user, or when editing an existing user, the librarians can check boxes in order to attributes roles to them. Some additional information is needed, depending on the role(s) attributed.
Four patron types are available: standard, student, children1 and children2.
Four item types are available: standard, short, on-site and no-checkout.
The design of the circulation interface has to be further explored; at this stage, this is only a proof of concept. The idea is to reduce drastically the need to use other input devices than a barcode scanner or a RFID reader in order to do most of the circulation actions.
The circulation interface is reachable through the manage drop-down menu, selecting the circulation item. It contains two tabs, the first for check in / check out and the second to manage pending requests.
When the check in / check out view is loaded, the focus is by default in the input field: patron card or item barcode are ready to be scanned!
Basically, the librarian can use the input field either to enter a patron barcode or an item barcode. Then, the system tries to understand what is the default action to be proposed to the librarian, or to be done if it is crystal clear.
If a patron barcode is entered, the needed information of the patron is displayed. The focus stays on the input field, because most of the time, the librarian will then scan item barcode to borrow or return items. When all items have been processed, the librarian sees a list of items with the most probable action selected, that the librarian can modify if needed before validating.
If an item barcode is entered, it could be an item to be returned, a missing item that has been found or an item to be loaned to a patron, but the patron barcode is not given yet.
Some messages are displayed to the operator, for instance to alert that a given item has been requested by another patron (and thus cannot be loaned), or that an item is now in transit because it has to be returned in another library.
In case of an item requested for a patron, the librarian can switch to the tab that allows to manage pending requests. It displays requests on items that are available on shelf (only the first request per item). Once the librarian picked up the document on shelf, he can enter the item barcode and thus validate the request. An email is automatically send to the patron who made the request as soon as the item is available at desk.
For the time, only a sample of about 100 records of person authorities from the catalogs of the BnF, GND and RERO are available for the librarian. These records from various catalogs are aligned automatically through the use of VIAF. This project launched by RERO is called MEF for Multilingual Entity File. Like for the other records, a brief and a detailed view is proposed for each person record. This last one highlights the potential of the project by providing two separates views of the person records, one displaying all sources in one frame with data tagged by source, the other displaying data separately by source. The prototype server under development by RERO will propose in the future records for persons, organisations, works, expressions, places, time spans and common names for reuse in integrated library systems (ILS). All information about the project can be found on the MEF page
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